


Fides

by Hannahmayski



Series: Internment [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: AU, Found Family, Gen, They all love each other very much, he's still sad and anxious but he's way more chill bc he has a loving family, hes the captain, shipping? I don't know her, so zuko deals with the fact that ozai doesn't love him a lot earlier, tfw when you realise your found family consists entirely of fugitives, zuko and jee are drinking buddies, zuko iroh and the crew have a weekly music night, zuko is a sailor at heart, zuko refuses to be called prince, zuko would set zhao on fire if it wasn't for iroh having to constantly hold him back
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-07
Updated: 2018-09-07
Packaged: 2019-07-08 02:45:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15921234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hannahmayski/pseuds/Hannahmayski
Summary: Zuko finds his home on the open seas.





	Fides

**Author's Note:**

> Yo so AU where Ozai doesn't tell Zuko to capture the Avatar and he ends up travelling the world with Iroh and his crew and they're all one small weird family but they love each other very much 
> 
> Also they always sing (but especially on music night) but there are some songs that none of them can remember the lyrics to so they made them up and it sounds awful and doesn't really rhyme properly and none of them can sing but they're just a bunch of fugitive sailors so who cares
> 
>  
> 
> ~~(sometimes a family is a retired tea-loving general, a sad teenager, a grumpy lieutenant and a few rag-tag sailors)~~

Jee breathes in the fresh air, aborting it midway through as he snorts, reading through the next line of his scrawl on the spare piece of parchment he’d found last night. In their intoxicated and hazed minds he and Zuko, their Captain, had devised what their next travel plans would be.

“Captain,” he calls out, trying to breathe through the chuckles. The directions say that they can travel to Mo Ce Sea in under a  _ week  _ from where they are - the western point of the old air nomad land of the Northern Air temple, White Mountain Bay.

“We drank it  _ all,”  _ Zuko marvels a little over to the side, holding up the empty bottle to the sun. The seas had been rough, and they were all exhausted. ‘We’ll have a few glasses’ Jee remembers Zuko saying. ‘We don’t know when we’ll be able to stock up again, so we have to be careful.’

Jee and Zuko hadn’t gone overboard in their drinking… the problem was they drank all they  _ had  _ and dragged the rest of the crew down with them. It was a fun night, Jee thinks. Zuko had finally loosened up a little after a close encounter with a Fire Navy vessel that housed none other than Admiral Zhao had left him tense as all hell.

Although, Jee doesn’t blame him. Zhao’s been hunting them – specifically the  _ traitor prince  _ for the last year relentlessly. Zuko’s got the biggest bounty on his head out of the lot of them and understandably so.

The General is the next one on the list, but Zuko was the crowned prince, the next in line to the throne. There’s a difference between  _ exiled  _ and  _ fugitive.  _ A big difference. One that leaves them in constant danger.

But now… now that Jee’s been able to understand what led Zuko to being exiled in the first place and see the world for what it is truly is he can’t find it in him to regret it. Ozai – their supposed immaculate Fire Lord burnt his own son for speaking out of turn. Their beloved country has ruined the lives of millions and when Zuko saw this with his own eyes, he couldn’t bear it.

Jee doubts he would have done anything if it were up to him alone. He would have claimed it’s easier to turn one's eyes away and feign ignorance, but when he realised that Zuko was determined to do something about the pain and the suffering… it wasn’t exactly hard to get Jee to join him on his crusade.

Zuko had suffered at the same hands the rest of the world had, and Jee is sure that was the ticket to getting Zuko to abandon his country. The scar on Zuko’s face is a constant reminder of how little his father cares.

Ozai wasn’t letting Zuko go home, so Zuko made himself a new home, out on the open seas. Jee never would have pictured himself travelling the world, liberating small towns and drinking with the ex-prince of the Fire Nation. But now that he’s living it, he’s sure he wouldn’t want anything else.

His captain, despite being young, earned the title and the crew's trust and companionship through hard work. Everyone on their vessel now was there of their own free will, as per Zuko’s orders, and that was the first major moment Jee realised Zuko was far from a kid anymore, far from ignorant and far from the prince he used to be.

“Why do our drunk selves insist on devising the most ambitious, impossible travel plans,” Jee asks to the air, rough snorts becoming full blown laughter as he doubles over.

Zuko’s only 16, but he can hold his liquor as well as Jee can, which makes him for fantastic company, but hurts their liquor supply to no end. 

Jee had discovered Zuko’s love of liquor not long after Jee had told Zuko he would stay in the ship, travelling with him. After that, Zuko slowly went from ‘brat and ex-prince’ to 'captain and good friend’.  Zuko had looked at the bottle in Jee’s hand and pointedly said: “I sure hope you were planning to share that, Lieutenant," and that's when Jee  _knew._

At first, he was worried Iroh would not approve of Jee and Zuko’s occasional drinking nights, but the General merely joined in, which led to weekly entertainment nights. Alcohol would be consumed, instruments would be played and horrifically off-tune music would be sung and Jee would mull over it in the morning, thinking how banishing Zuko turned him into the finest young man Jee knew.

(To anyone looking in, Jee knows they’d truly look like they’d all been sailors since the day they were born).

Sato stumbles out of one of the tents, holding his head and squinting at the sun as though it’s very existence has deeply offended him.

“Sato!” Zuko calls, his voice breaks halfway through and Jee dissolves into a mess of laughter once again, ignoring Zuko’s weak, half-hearted glare.

“Sato,” Zuko repeats, approaching the man and clamping his hands on his shoulders. “Please tell me we didn’t drink all the liquor,” he asks as if he doesn’t already know the answer

Sato squints again, looking dazed. “Uh. I uh. I don’t even  _ know,  _ sir. _ ” _

“At least we didn’t try and board the ship and sail away,” Jee says once he’s breathing is under control again.

Zuko guides Sato over to sit up against one of the rocks. “We planned it so thoroughly as well,” Zuko says, as a small wiry grin eats up his face, “I calculated the coal use, food and water all down to the spoonful.”

He looks up at the sky and notes the position of the sun, sighing heavily. “I don’t know why I’m surprised,” he says.

Jee snorts as he rifles through one of their bags and pulling out breakfast supplies.

It’s a rare moment they all have fun and let loose, with the world in the state that it’s in, they have to be on their toes at all time, especially considering they’re a vessel full of _Fire Nation fugitives_. Being on the Fire Nation’s hitlist isn’t that hard to achieve, but being a fugitive and being from the _Fire Nation_ is a whole other ball game. Plus, Zuko and Iroh aren’t exactly nobodies either. 

They’re a Fire Nation vessel full of rough sailors, who also happen to be traitors. Every encounter with another Fire Nation vessel, they’re risking capture and torture and ultimately death. They have all the hallmarks of an abducted vessel, the Earth and Water flags fluttering in the breeze and their crew’s choice of wardrobe being Earth Kingdom garb to the scratched off registry numbers on her bow.

Jee knows the risks, but he’s prepared to take them. 

Their a walking – or floating – enemy of the Fire Nation, and with the Fire Navy constantly expanding its exploratory territory, they can’t afford to ever let their guards down.

It’s a rare moment they can simply have fun. White Mountain Bay isn’t the safest place to do it, but it’s the safest they’ve encountered in far too long.

Iroh emerges next. He stares at Zuko and then slowly moves his eyes over to Jee. He lets out a little chuckle and pats his stomach like he knows something neither the Captain or the Lieutenant do. “I’m glad you two did not end up going through with that plan!” he says. Jee knows Zuko’s blushing without even looking.

Travelling from White Mountain Bay to Mo Ce Sea is one of their most bizarre drunken travel plans so far.  At least some of their other plans made sense, but Mo Ce Sea is further south, right from the direction they came.

Zuko meanders over to Jee, crouching down and grabs some the kindling they’d collected the night before. They haven’t encountered anyone since the incident with Zhao, and on one hand, Jee’s relieved, on the other hand, he’s just plain nervous. 

The Fire Nation is everywhere, and on the open seas, it’s hard to blend in when there’s no crowd to blend into. 

Jee knows one day, they may have to let their ship go and start moving on foot, but he’ll deal with that when it comes. 

Zuko has the fire going, cradling it in his hands as the tiny flames begin to to blossom into bigger ones.  

“We’re close to the Northern Water Tribe,” Zuko says. He doesn’t look up from the flames. Jee pulls out the herbs Iroh collected around the bay upon their arrival as well as their rice and ponders Zuko's words. 

“We've already touched base with the South,” Jee says. “The North’s military is far more advanced than the South, they might attack us, and don’t have the resources to fight back.” 

“Fighting back would only prove to them we’re enemies,” Zuko says. “If they haven’t heard rumours about us I’d be surprised and if we want to do anything in this war, we need to prove we’re here to stay.” 

Jee nods along, he knows Zuko’s right, but that doesn’t mean it’s safe. “Mo Ce Sea is sounding better and better,” Jee says, his tone comes off more bitter than he intends. 

“Plus,” Zuko says, looking up at him and this time there’s a glint in his eyes, meaning he has a plan. All of Zuko’s plans are logical if a little on the reckless side. Jee finds himself intrigued, knowing this is going to be interesting. 

“Remember what the old man told us at Shujing? That there were rumours the Avatar was there?” Zuko piles a few more sticks onto the Fire, glancing up and nodding at Jirou and Kazuo as they join them outside, looking as humoured as Jee felt. It was one of the best nights they’d had in a while. 

“Ahh,” Jee says, measuring the rice into the pot. “If we could team up with the Avatar, we might be truly able to make a difference in the war.” 

The old sailor at Shujing was made of leathery weathered skin and a heart filled with spite, and more secrets then all of Zuko, Iroh and the crew put together. Jee isn’t sure how much he believes him, but the Northern Water Tribe  _ is _ the next logical point to turn regardless. 

And plus, now the Avatar is confirmed to be alive, he’s going to need all the allies he can get. 

It’s still odd to think that he’s an active participant in the war - a fugitive no less, hunted by his own country. But he’s watched Zuko flounder and struggle the last three years, proving himself again and again to Jee that he’s the one who he wants to follow. 

Jee’s loyalty is to the fugitive ex-prince of the Fire Nation. His loyalty is to the man who’s proved to have more compassion and determination than Jee’s ever seen. If Zuko thinks the world is unjust, if Zuko thinks that it’s his job to fight for it, Jee will follow him to the grave. 

“Northern Water Tribe it is, Captain,” Jee says. 

Zuko looks at him, fire in his gaze with a renewed bout of determination he hasn’t seen since Zhao came uncomfortably close to having Zuko’s head on a spike and Jee knows that he made the right decision to stay. 

The Fire Nation will not win this war. Not with Zuko on the enemy's side.

**Author's Note:**

> Is this extremely self-indulgent? Yes. Do I care? no.  
> I will die with my sailor Zuko AU okay
> 
> Kudos and comments are like............ my lifeblood...... keeping me going in these trying times 
> 
>  
> 
> [here is my writing blog!!](https://echoswriting.tumblr.com/)  
> [here's my atla blog!!](https://yourscarsonthewrongside.tumblr.com/)
> 
>  
> 
> (also sorry for any errors im so tired)


End file.
